SECRETS

5 years ago

Nixon’s Watergate Testimony Unsealed

AP Photo

Former President Richard Nixon’s grand-jury testimony about Watergate will be made available Thursday, four months after a judge ordered that the testimony be made public. “This is Nixon unplugged,” said historian Stanley Kutler, who was part of the lawsuit to free the records. One topic covered in the testimony is the infamous 18-and-a-half-minute gap in a tape recording of Nixon and his chief of staff three days after the break-in of the Democratic offices at the Watergate Hotel. While the release of the testimony is an unprecedented step in public-figure transparency, Kutler does not expect the tapes to reveal much. "I have no illusions. Richard Nixon knew how to dodge questions with the best of them. I am sure that he danced, skipped, around a number of things,” he said.